Stacking and quantitative analysis of lovastatin in urine samples by the transient moving chemical reaction boundary method in capillary electrophoresis

A simple, sensitive, and useful concentration method for lovastatin (Lvt) in urine has been developed based on the transient moving chemical reaction boundary method (tMCRBM) in capillary electrophoresis. The MCRB is formed with acidic sample buffer (Gly-HCl) and alkaline running buffer (Gly-NaOH). The following optimal conditions were determined for stacking and separation: electrophoretic buffer of 100 mM Gly- NaOH (pH 11.52), sample buffer of 20 mM Gly-HCl (pH 4.93), fused-silica capillary of 76 cm × 75-μm i.d (67 cm from detector), sample injection at 14 mbar for 3 min. A 21- to 26-fold increase in peak height was achieved for detection of Lvt in urine under the optimal conditions compared with normal capillary zone electrophoresis. By combining the sample pretreatment procedure with the stacking method, the sensitivity of Lvt in urine was increased by 105- to 130-fold. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) for Lvt in urine were decreased to 8.8 ng/mL and 29.2 ng/mL, respectively. The intra-day and inter-day precision values (expressed as RSD) were 2.23–3.61% and 4.03–5.05%, respectively. The recoveries of the analyte at three concentration levels changed from 82.65 to 100.49%.     

Determination of fumaric and maleic acids with stacking analytes by transient moving chemical reaction boundary method in capillary electrophoresis

The paper presents an on-line transient moving chemical reaction boundary (MCRB) method for simply but efficiently stacking analytes in capillary electrophoresis (CE). The CE technique was developed for a rapid determination of fumaric and maleic acid. Based on the theory of MCRB, Effects of several important factors such as the pH and concentration of running buffer and the conditions of stacking analytes were investigated to acquire the optimum conditions. The optimized separations were carried out in a 20 mmol/L sulphate neutralized with ethylenediamine to pH 6.0 electrolytes using a capillary coated with poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) and direct UV detection at 214 nm. The optimized preconcentrations were carried out in 50 mmol/L borax (pH 9.0). The calibration curves were linear in the concentration range of 1.0 × 10⁻⁷–1.0 × 10⁻⁴ mol/L and 5.0 × 10⁻⁷–1.0 × 10⁻⁴ mol/L for fumaric and maleic acid with correlation coefficients higher than 0.9991. The detection limits were 5.34 × 10⁻⁸ mol/L for fumaric acid and 1.92 × 10⁻⁷ mol/L for maleic acid. This method was applied for determination of fumaric acid in apple juice and of fumaric and maleic acid in dl-malic, the recovery tests established for real samples were within the range 95–105%. This work provided a valid and simple approach to detect fumaric and maleic acid.     

Comparative study on sample stacking by moving reaction boundary formed with weak acid and weak or strong alkali in capillary electrophoresis: I. Theory

The condensation of low abundance zwitterion substance, such as protein and peptide, has great significance to the study on proteomics. This paper develops the theory on design of online stacking conditions of zwitterion by a moving reaction boundary (MRB) in capillary electrophoresis (CE). This concerns the choice of running and sample buffers, velocity design of MRB, and salt effect on the stacking. The theoretical results unveil that: (1) the velocity of MRB formed with weak acidic buffer and strong alkali should be set between zero and the velocity of zwitterion in the alkali phase, or no stacking occurs; (2) if a strong alkali is used to prepare the sample, a much long front plug of strong base must be injected before the alkaline sample plug for complete stacking, whereas no such front plug is needed if a weak alkali with enough high concentration and pH value is used to prepare the sample buffer; (3) the existence of salt in sample matrix has a weak effect on the stacking of zwitterion if sample is prepared with weak alkaline buffer, while has a dramatic effect on the same stacking if with a strong base buffer. In addition, the concentration of weak alkali used for preparation of sample should be set at the point, at which the velocity of MRB is as much as possible close to that of negative zwitterion. The developed theory and its computation are quantitatively proved by the experiments of zwitterion stacking by the MRB as shown in the previous and the accompanying papers. The proposed theoretic results hold obvious significances on-column stacking of low abundance zwitterions, such as amino acid, or peptides or proteins, in CE.     

Comparative study on sample stacking by moving reaction boundary formed with weak acid and weak or strong base in capillary electrophoresis: II. Experiments

To demonstrate the theoretic method on the stacking of zwitterion with moving reaction boundary (MRB) in the accompanying paper, the relevant experiments were performed. The experimental results quantitatively show that (1) MRB velocity, including the comparisons between MRB and zwitterionic velocities, possesses key importance to the design of MRB stacking; (2) a much long front alkaline plug without sample should be injected before the sample injection for a complete stacking of zwitterion if sample buffer is prepared with strong base, conversely no such plug is needed if using a weak base as the sample buffer with proper concentration and pH value; (3) the presence of salt in MRB system holds dramatic effect on the MRB stacking if sample solution is a strong base, but has no effect if a weak alkali is used as sample solution; (4) all of the experiments of this paper, including the previous work, quantitatively manifest the theory and predictions shown in the accompanying paper. In addition, the so-called derivative MRB-induced re-stacking and transient FASI-induced re-stacking were also observed during the experiments, and the relevant mechanisms were briefly demonstrated with the results. The theory and its calculation procedures developed in the accompanying paper can be well used for the predictions to the MRB stacking of zwitterion in CE.     

毛细管电泳高频电导法测定苦参中的苦参碱和氧化苦参碱

建立了用毛细管电泳高频电导法测定苦参药材中苦参碱和氧化苦参碱的方法。对电泳介质的种类、浓度、pH值以及操作电压和进样时间对分离检测的影响进行了研究。缓冲液为2.0mmol LNa2HPO4 1.0mmol LH3PO4 体积分数为25%乙醇(pH6.0),分离电压为16.0kV时可实现较好的分离与检测。苦参碱和氧化苦参碱的线性范围为:25.0～1.00×103μg mL(相关系数分别为0 987和0.999);RSD(n=6)分别为:2.1%和0.70%;检出限分别为10.0和5.00μg mL;回收率分别为92.7%～99.1%和100%～102%。     

Study on mechanism of stacking of zwitterion in highly saline biologic sample by transient moving reaction boundary created by formic buffer and conjugate base in capillary electrophoresis

The reason why a moving reaction boundary (MRB) can stack analyte in highly saline sample in capillary electrophoresis [C.X. Cao, Y.Z. He, M. Li, Y.T. Qian, S.L. Zhou, L. Yang, Q.S. Qu, Anal. Chem. 74 (2002) 4167] is still unclear. To illuminate the mechanism of such stacking, three MRBs formed by formic acid-NaOH buffer and sodium formate as well as 40, 80 and 120 mmol/L sodium chloride in matrixes were studied. The computation with MRB theory shows that sodium chloride in matrix has weak effect on the stacking efficiency, whether the concentration of sodium chloride is set at 40, or 80, or 120 mmol/L. The conclusion has been highly manifested by numerous experiments. Furthermore, the computer simulation and theoretical analyses depict that this kind of stacking is induced by the mechanism of MRB, rather than that of electrostacking or isotachophoresis (ITP) under the given electrolytic system. Finally, the application of the sample condensation was achieved for the stacking of analyte(s) in highly saline biological sample of skeletonema costarum’ culture with up to 527 mmol/L total salt and health human urine with 150-320 mmol/L inorganic ions (Cl⁻, Na⁺, K⁺, PO₄³⁻, etc.). The results herein have a clear significance to the design on stacking of analyte in highly saline biological sample.     

Quantitative study on selective stacking of zwitterions in large-volume sample matrix by moving reaction boundary in capillary electrophoresis

The paper advanced the theoretical procedures for quantitative design on selective stacking of zwitterions in full capillary sample matrix by a cathodic-direction moving reaction boundary (MRB) in capillary electrophoresis (CE) under control of electroosmotic flow (EOF). With the procedures, we conducted the theoretical computations on the selective stacking of two test analytes of L-histidine (His) and L-tryptophan (Trp) by the MRB created with 30 mM pH 3.0 formic acid-NaOH buffer and 2-80 mM sodium formate. The results revealed the following three predictions. At first, the MRB cannot stack His and Trp plugs if less than 12.5 mM sodium formate is used to form the MRB and prepare the sample matrix. Second, the MRB can stack His and/or Trp sample plugs completely if higher than 50 mM sodium formate is chosen to form the MRB. Third, the MRB can only focus His plug completely, but stack Trp plug partially if 20-50 mM sodium formate is used; this implied the complete MRB-induced selective stacking to His rather than Trp. All the three predictions were quantitatively proved by the experiments. With great dilution of sample matrix and control of EOF, controllable, simultaneous and MRB-induced selective stacking and separation of zwitterions were achieved. The theoretical results hold evident significances to the quantitative design of selective stacking conditions and the increase of detection sensitivity of zwitterions in CE. In addition, the control of EOF by cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) can evidently improve the stacking efficiency to both His and Trp.     

应用移动反应界面富集技术进行毛细管电泳尿液指纹分析

快速灵敏的尿液指纹图谱分析对于临床诊断中发现新的生物标记至关重要。该文建立了一种简便、快速、灵敏的移动反应界面(MRB)介导的富集技术进行毛细管电泳尿液指纹图谱分析。MRB由25 mmol/L甘氨酸（Gly）-HCl（pH 2.5）作为样品缓冲液和50 mmol/L Gly-NaOH（pH 12.3）作为电泳缓冲液形成。与常规的毛细管区带电泳只能观察到尿液中不到10个峰相比,采用MRB可以观察到超过80个峰并将检测灵敏度提高了至少十几倍,显示该方法对于代谢组学分析具有重要的意义。     

Separation and determination of aloperine, sophoridine, matrine and oxymatrine by combination of flow injection with microfluidic capillary electrophoresis

A novel, rapid and accurate method for the separation and determination of aloperine (ALP), sophoridine (SRI), matrine (MT) and oxymatrine (OMT) has been developed by combination of flow injection (FI) with microfluidic capillary electrophoresis (CE) for the first time. In the present paper, a continuous sample introduction interface was described. The interface with an H-channel structure was produced using a non-lithographic approach. The H-channel structure was fixed on a planar plastic base utilizing a horizontal 6.5 cm-long separation capillary with two vertical sidearm tubes on each end that served as inlet and outlet flow-through electrode reservoirs. The inlet reservoir also functioned as interface for coupling to the FI system. The buffer solution used was a 50 mmol l⁻¹ borate solution with the pH adjusted to 8.80 with 2 mol l⁻¹ HCl. The performance of the system was demonstrated in the separation and determination of ALP, SRI, MT and OMT with UV detection at 215 nm, achieving baseline separation within 2 min. A series of samples was injected repeatedly without current interruption and subsequent rinsing, and the contents of these four bio-alkaloids in two marketed drugs were determined with satisfactory recovery by this proposed method.     

Simultaneous stacking of cationic and anionic compounds in single run capillary zone electrophoresis by two-end field amplified sample injection

In order to extend the application of field amplified sample injection (FASI) in high throughput analysis, a convenient and simple procedure, namely two-end field amplified sample injection (TE-FASI), was developed for the simultaneous stacking of cationic and anionic compounds in a single run capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). Following the capillary-filling with a buffer of high conductivity, water plug was loaded into each end of the capillary; and two high-field strength zones were generated at both heads of the column when high voltage was applied. Therefore, under suppressed EOF cations and anions can be selectively FASI stacked at anode and cathode head, respectively. After separation, the stacked anions and cations are detected by a common detector placed in the center of the capillary. Under the optimized conditions, the limits of detection for the model cationic (matrine and oxymatrine) and anionic (5-sulfosalicylic acid) compounds were determined as 0.2, 0.2 and 0.06 ng/mL, respectively. Compared with non-stacking conditions, the sensitivities of these compounds were enhanced 1003-, 1330- and 1380-fold, respectively. The results of reproducibility, linearity and real sample analysis show that the proposed procedure is promising to be applied for the simultaneous quantification detection of trace cationic and anionic analytes.     

Computer simulation on a continuous moving chelation boundary in ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid-based sample sweeping in capillary electrophoresis

This paper introduces a mathematic mode of moving chelation boundary (MCB) for computer simulation of a continuous EDTA-based sample sweeping in capillary electrophoresis (CE). Besides the equations of MCB used herein, the mode also includes electro-neutrality equation, constant current density, jump boundary condition of MCB, Kohlrausch’ regulating function expressed in MCB formulation, product of water, ionic apparent mobility, ionic strength and conductivity of electrolyte as well as simple equilibrium reaction, etc. The simulation software is developed based on the mode. With the software the relevant simulation is carried out, and the corresponding experiments on a MCB are performed. The results on the simulation and experiments demonstrate that (1) the software can simulate a dynamic process, characteristic peak shape and relevant electrophoregram of a MCB; (2) the simulator can quantitatively compute velocities of MCB and complex boundary (CB), all of ionic concentrations (especially the concentration of complex) and sweeping efficiency; (3) these simulation results mentioned above are generally in accordance with the experiments. The simulation software holds evident significances for the study on a MCB and conditional optimization in such an EDTA-based sample sweeping of metal ion in CE.     

Acid-induced transient isotachophoretic stacking of basic drugs in co-electroosmotic flow capillary zone electrophoresis

Online sample concentration or stacking of basic drugs by transient isotachophoresis with the injection of an acid in co-electroosmotic flow capillary zone electrophoresis was studied experimentally and with computer simulation. The acid stacking strategy afforded an order of magnitude improvement in concentration sensitivity for model tricyclic antidepressant and β blocker drugs.     

Transient pseudo-isotachophoretic stacking in analysis of plasma for homocysteine by capillary zone electrophoresis

An analytical procedure enabling routine analysis of human plasma for total homocysteine has been developed and validated. The method includes reduction of homocysteine disulfides to thiol with tris 2-carboxyethylphosphine, derivatization of the thiol with 2-chloro-1-methylquinolinium tetrafluoroborate, separation of homocysteine 2-S-quinolinium derivative from those of plasma endogenous and exogenous thiol derivatives by capillary zone electrophoresis, and quantitation with the use of ultraviolet detection based on acetonitrile stacking. Method performance characteristics, for example recovery, calibration, precision, limit of detection, and limit of quantitation, are presented. The procedure was applied to analysis of plasma samples donated by apparently healthy volunteers.     

毛细管电泳法同时测定血浆中的美西律、利多卡因和布比卡因的浓度

采用毛细管电泳法同时测定血浆中关西律、利多卡因和布比卡因的浓度。取0．5mL血浆，用乙醚提取后吹干，重组后进样于毛细管电泳仪进行分离测定。电泳条件：分离用缓冲液为75mmol／L NaH2PO4溶液（pH3．0），温度30℃，运行电压26kV，紫外检测，波长200nm，压力进样5S。本法在0．1～4．0μg／mL范围内线性关系和精密度良好，方法回收率在96％～105％之间，检出限均为0．02μg／mL，可满足临床监测需要。     

Assay of melamine in milk products with a pH‐mediated stacking technique in capillary electrophoresis

A pH‐mediated stacking method in capillary electrophoresis as an assay for low concentrations of melamine in milk products was established. Real samples were treated with acetone and sodium acetate and injected directly after centrifugation and filtration. Several experimental factors, such as buffer pH, buffer concentration, sample matrix, injection/sweeping ratio, sweeping time/voltages, separation voltages, as well as sample pretreatment, which affected stacking and separation, were investigated and optimized. Under the selected condition, a low LOD of 0.01 μmol/L (S/N = 5) and a wide range of linearity of 0.01～1.0 μmol/L could be easily achieved with a good reproducibility (RSDs < 5.8% for both migration time and peak area) and an acceptable recovery of 94.0～103.2% (for milk, infant formula, yogurt, and milk products). The proposed method was suitable for routine assay of melamine in real milk samples.     

Fast and selective determination of total protein in milk powder via titration of moving reaction boundary electrophoresis

In this paper, moving reaction boundary titration (MRBT) was developed for rapid and accurate quantification of total protein in infant milk powder, from the concept of moving reaction boundary (MRB) electrophoresis. In the method, the MRB was formed by the hydroxide ions and the acidic residues of milk proteins immobilized via cross‐linked polyacrylamide gel (PAG), an acid‐base indicator was used to denote the boundary motion. As a proof of concept, we chose five brands of infant milk powders to study the feasibility of MRBT method. The calibration curve of MRB velocity versus logarithmic total protein content of infant milk powder sample was established based on the visual signal of MRB motion as a function of logarithmic milk protein content. Weak influence of nonprotein nitrogen (NPN) reagents (e.g., melamine and urea) on MRBT method was observed, due to the fact that MRB was formed with hydroxide ions and the acidic residues of captured milk proteins, rather than the alkaline residues or the NPN reagents added. The total protein contents in infant milk powder samples detected via the MRBT method were in good agreement with those achieved by the classic Kjeldahl method. In addition, the developed method had much faster measuring speed compared with the Kjeldahl method.     

Simultaneous determination of lappaconitine hydrobromide and isopropiram fumarate in rabbit plasma by capillary electrophoresis with electrochemiluminescence detection

A CE electrochemiluminescence (CE-ECL) method for simultaneous determination of lappaconitine hydrobromide (LH) and isopropiram fumarate (IF) has been first established, with a chemically modified platinum electrode by europium (III)-doped Prussian blue analogue film as a working electrode. The conditions for CE separation and ECL detection are discussed and optimized in detail. It has been proved that 20 mmol/L phosphate buffer (pH 8.5) containing 5% (v/v) ACN and 0.17 mol/L SDS could achieve the most favorable resolution, and the high sensitivity of detection was obtained by maintaining the detection potential at 1.23 V. Under optimized conditions, a baseline separation for the two analytes was achieved within 6 min, and the standard curves were linear in the range of 1.0×10(-7) ～ 5.0 × 10(-5) g/mL for LH and 4.0 × 10(-8) ～ 1.0 × 10(-5) g/mL for IF with the detection limits (3σ) of 6.6 × 10(-8) g/mL for LH and 3.7 × 10(-8) g/mL for IF, respectively. The precisions of intra- and interday measurements for LH and IF were less than 4.21 and 2.61%, respectively. The applicability of the proposed method was illustrated in the determination of LH and IF in rabbit plasma with recoveries between 95.6 and 103.0%.     

A visual detection of protein content based on titration of moving reaction boundary electrophoresis

A visual electrophoretic titration method was firstly developed from the concept of moving reaction boundary (MRB) for protein content analysis. In the developed method, when the voltage was applied, the hydroxide ions in the cathodic vessel moved towards the anode, and neutralized the carboxyl groups of protein immobilized via highly cross-linked polyacrylamide gel (PAG), generating a MRB between the alkali and the immobilized protein. The boundary moving velocity (V_MRB) was as a function of protein content, and an acid–base indicator was used to denote the boundary displacement. As a proof of concept, standard model proteins and biological samples were chosen for the experiments to study the feasibility of the developed method. The experiments revealed that good linear calibration functions between V_MRB and protein content (correlation coefficients R > 0.98). The experiments further demonstrated the following merits of developed method: (1) weak influence of non-protein nitrogen additives (e.g., melamine) adulterated in protein samples, (2) good agreement with the classic Kjeldahl method (R = 0.9945), (3) fast measuring speed in total protein analysis of large samples from the same source, and (4) low limit of detection (0.02–0.15 mg mL⁻¹ for protein content), good precision (R.S.D. of intra-day less than 1.7% and inter-day less than 2.7%), and high recoveries (105–107%).     

Determination of mercaptopurine and its four metabolites by large-volume sample stacking with polarity switching in capillary electrophoresis

This study describes approaches for stacking a large volume of sample solutions containing a mixture of mercaptopurine monohydrate, 6-methylmercaptopurine, thioguanine, thioguanosine, and thioxanthine in capillary electrophoresis (CE). After filling the run buffer (60 mM borate buffer, pH 8.5), a large sample volume was loaded by hydrodynamic injection (2.5 psi, 99.9 s), followed by the removal of the large plug of sample matrix from the capillary using polarity switching (-15 kV). Monitoring the current and reversing the polarity when 95% of current recovered, the separation of anionic analytes was performed in a run buffer < 20 kV. Around 44- to 90-fold improvement of sensitivity for five analytes was achieved by large-volume stacking with polarity switching when compared with CE without stacking. This method was feasible for determination of the analytes spiked in plasma. Removing most of electrolytes from plasma is a key step for performing large-volume sample stacking. Solid-phase extraction was used for pretreatment of biological samples. To our knowledge, this study is one of few applications showing the possibilities of this stacking procedure to analyze biological samples by large-volume sample stacking with polarity switching (LVSSPS) in CE.     

Microchip analysis of lithium in blood using moving boundary electrophoresis and zone electrophoresis

The determination of inorganic cations in blood plasma is demonstrated using a combination of moving boundary electrophoresis (MBE) and zone electrophoresis. The sample loading performed under MBE conditions is studied with the focus on the quantitative analysis of lithium. A concentration adjustment takes place when the sample components migrate into the chip during the sample loading step. Using a heart-cutting method, a diluted sample plug is subsequently separated with capillary zone electrophoresis. The excessive dispersion that is typical of the samples with a high ionic strength is thereby prevented. The method can be easily applied to commercially available capillary electrophoresis microchips under the condition that the electroosmotic flow is suppressed. For the first time the lithium concentration is determined in the blood plasma from a patient on lithium therapy without sample pretreatment. Using a microchip with conductivity detection, a detection limit of 0.1 mmol/L is obtained for lithium in a 140 mmol/L sodium matrix.